Reference and Molding

Detailed Study:
Fish Eye Shape and Casting

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, it has taken me three scuba diving trips to get the point where I feel comfortable writing this article. Over two years ago I started studying the shape, coloration, and movement of fish eyes. I never expected the study to be as complicated and extensive as I have discovered.

1. The scuba diving that I do has made it possible to study fish in their natural habitat and get a face-to-face perspective of fish eye anatomy. The more I studied, the more I realized how much there was to learn.

The shape and coloration of a fish's eyes were quite different from what I had become accustomed to in the taxidermy industry. As first, I thought the eye shape that I was seeing during my dives were due to the manipulation of light rays as they reflected off a fish's eyes in the water. After all, fish eyes are round, right? Wrong! The more I studied, the more it became obvious that fish eyes are not round. My study of eyes in and out of the water has concluded that fish eyes are oval (looking at them from the side) and not symmetrical (looking at them from the top or bottom).

I knew I needed to capture these shapes on film, so I immediately purchased a specialty camera with many micro-adapters that made it possible to capture "microscopic detail." Once I had the camera, I needed some fresh specimens to